Cartographica has for a long time supported geocoding photos based either on tracks or based on data inside of the photos themselves. For most of that time, we have supported doing this for bothfiles on disk and images that are stored inside of Apple's iPhoto application.

With recent versions of OS X (basically since 10.8.5 or so), Apple has been providing access to photos in both iPhoto and Aperture through the file selection or Open dialog as well by way of the Media item in the sidebar on the left.

Since the introduction of that feature, we have supported both that mechanism, and our older direct-iPhoto access method (which had been supported since 10.6). However, recent changes to iPhoto and the fact that this mechanism actually has better previewing than our old system has led us to the decision to remove the iPhoto-specific menu item for Geocoding photos.

As of Cartographica 1.4.5, we are going to remove these menu items. We are not removing the ability to geocode your iPhoto photos, you will just need to access them through this mechanism.

We will update the documentation and the support site to reflect this change.

ClueTrust has released Cartographica version 1.4.4, which is now available for download from the MacGIS.com site. This update is free to all current Cartographica users, and any user who has valid trial key. (If you have previously tried Cartographica, you will be eligible for a new 10-day evaluation key if you visit our lost key page.
Full release notes for 1.4.4 are available at our site, but here is a summary of the changes:

Fixes for compatibility problems with OS X 10.8 and 10.7

Improved performance and progress information for Table and Database imports

Added support for pasting array of rgb colors (javascript format) from ColorBrewer2.org into the UberBrowser Palette

There's a great article from VerySpatial making the case that the use of "analog" maps in cases where differential information is being compared might night be the best way to display data online. We've been looking into this space recently and already have excellent KML Export in Cartographica, which can be easily paired with online tools like Google Layers and Leaflet.

We are pleased to announce the release of Cartographica version 1.4.3, our latest minor feature and bug fix release. As with previous versions of 1.4.x, 1.4.3 is compatible with OS X versions 10.7, 10.8 and 10.9 (and we've also done some preliminary testing on 10.10).

Features that we have included in the 1.4.3 release include:

Improved AppleScript® support for analysis tools

Added Selection Summary window

Improved handling of GML layers with multiple geometry types

Added support for .tab files as georeference information for TIFF files

This update is avialable to all customers. In addition, we are resetting the clock for trials, so if you have tried 1.4.2 or earlier and want to try again, please visit the Lost Key page and enter your registered email address to receive a 10-day trial of 1.4.3.

Selection Summary

One significant addition to 1.4.3 is that of the Selection Summary window, which shows statistical information for the currently selected features. In the past, Cartographica has provied the Selection Info window, which allows you to peek at the details of the selected items, and this new option expands on that to provide statisical information about the selected items. In particular, the Count, Sum, Average, Minimum, and Maximum values of the user-selected column are shown in the Selection Summary window, so you can quickly identify this information about any selection and any column.

In addition, when the selected column is a Calculated Column, Cartographica allows you to choose Formula calculated using summary values which calculates the formula over the summary values as opposed to creating the summary values from the post-formula values. Although in the case of simple formulas, this may have similar results, for some formulas it provides a different insight. It is important to understand these implications, as the default case (sum of the formula values, average of the formula values, minimum of the formula values, minimum of the formula values) can differ greatly from the application of a formula to the sums of the components, the averages of the components, the maximums of the components, and the minimums of the components. In most cases, the default case is appropriate.

Technical Details

Additionally, we have moved to linking against the 10.9 libraries in OS X. This is an internal change and should have no noticable effect on customers who are currently running Cartographica under 10.8 and 10.7, as we have taken pains to isolate the use of the few 10.9 dependencies and made sure that they are only used under 10.9. Further, our automated test systems are run on 10.7, 10.8, and 10.9 to ensure maximum compatibility. However, there were some changes to the way internals are handled under 10.9, which required us to spend more time on this update than originally expected.

This transition appears to be mostly a resource realignment (basically reducing the number of sources and web sites they need to maintain.

In addition, the USGS has also announced that "[L]ater this year we will deliver these new framework datasets at one million-scale: networked hydrography, updated streams and waterbodies, streamflow gaging stations, cities and towns, Federal lands, Indian lands, wilderness areas, and urban areas."

For those of you who are using USGS WFS and WMS services, based on the National Atlas, be warned that the services will be taken away September 30, 2014, but that the USGS is " currently evaluating options for continuing small-scale Web services beyond September 30, 2014, and will provide updates here."